Whilst perusing the national craft brewing publications over Gara’s River delicious Amber Ale, we stumbled across an interesting article about a Bundaberg brewery (Bargara Brewing Company) that uses fruit and vegetable seconds to create interesting and locally derived brews.

Not only is this creating interesting and varied beers for the customer and using ingredients that may otherwise go to waste, we understand this is a way of getting your five serves of vegies and two fruit servings per day.

We have had a number of fruit beers and fruit infused beers on tap, including a Blueberry Hefeweizen, Red Flemish Cherry Ale, Mango Sour Ale, Lime Gose (NE Brewing) and even a Hard Lemonade made traditionally from fresh lemons, all of which have been super popular.

We thought, why not get on a health kick too and throw our hat in the ring and try our own fruit beer collaboration?
What fruit?

We know that local (let’s call him Greg W.) does not stop talking about his prized mulberry tree in his organic orchard. Since coining this brew a few weeks back, we have been sneaking in every few days to check on Greg’s prized crop and when the time is right (i.e. when G. Windred is at the bar) we will sneak in and strip harvest all branches and berries. Fruit sorted.

What brewer?

After locating the trusty Nokia 3310, we dialled up Deepwater Brewing legend Marshall Wiles, AKA The Godfather, and ran the idea by him. For those of you who don’t know Marshall, he’s a bloody legend. He’s made more styles of beers than Dr Dan’s Carries. Plus an added bonus; they’re always spot on.

He happily jumped on board, as long as we pick all the mulberries. And he was reluctantly happy to reduce his brew from an 18.5% Belgian Fruit Beer (mid-strength for him) to a more palatable 4.8% Mulberry Infused Lager.

By the time you read this, we hope the berries have ripened and we have escaped Greg’s booby trapped orchid, or the lager could be a tad on the bitter side.

So will this taste any good? If it was up to just us, well probably not, but throw into the mix a little Deepwater magic, and we’re considering lodging the Trademark for Mulberry Lager right now.

So if you’re being told to increase your fruit and veg intake, be sure to …

Drink less, Taste More!

P.S next on the boil – perhaps a Marmalade IPA made with local Marmateer John Lemon’s homemade marmalade. If it’s as good as it is on Goldfish Bowl sourdough, the brew is sure to be a crowd pleaser.